Catharine Greer received her just desserts on Senior Night at Coveleigh Club last month. The Tufts-bound Rye High graduate was awarded Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year by the Athletic Department.

The All-Everything athlete was a four-year starter for both the soccer and basketball teams, and served as captain on each Garnet squad as well. Greer helped lead the soccer team to a second consecutive undefeated season, a No. 1 ranking in the country, a Section championship, and a second trip to the State finals in three years. On the hardcourt, she pushed the Garnets to a League championship and propelled them to a County Center appearance as the second-leading scorer on the team.

Despite issuing eight bases on balls and flinging nine wild pitches, Rye’s select team of 11-year-olds still had a chance to take the District 20 Little League crown from a nervous Harrison side under the lights July 19 at Gedney Field in White Plains.

Billy Chabot slams a fourth-inning homer.

Undefeated Harrison had plenty to be anxious about in the bottom of the sixth. Though they’d beaten this same Rye roster 7-3 just four days earlier, the Huskies were in obvious awe of their rivals’ bats.

Although the temperatures didn’t quite reach triple digits as in 2010, the mixed doubles team of Heather Sweeney and Jake Wilson was more than happy to take the victory plunge into the Apawamis Club pool July 9. The duo won the eighth annual Alana Dupont Invitational tournament, with over 50 friends, family, and club members on hand for the always-enjoyable affair.

Rye High School graduate Jordan Eck, who quarterbacked the Garnets to a State football championship in 2007, took part in a special tutoring session at The Harvey School July 12. Houston Texans’ backup QB Dan Orlovsky, a former standout at UConn, was the special guest coach.

Eck, a senior, is expected to call the signals this year on the gridiron for Hamilton College. Harvey’s new quarterback, Benny Goldman, also benefited from the professional tutelage.

Jonah Shainberg, 15, won a gold medal at the United States Fencing National Championships held in Reno, Nev., earlier this month. The Rye High School sophomore came in first out of 150 competitors his age and under in the Youth-14 Men’s sabre event.

Jonah Shainberg

Shainberg also competed in the North American Cup (NAC), another national competition held in Reno the same week. He placed 10th out of 190 Junior male sabre fencers (under 20) and 10th out of 160 Cadet male sabre fencers (under 17). His strong results in the NAC earned him a national Cadet ranking in the top 10, making him eligible to compete internationally at World Cup events in Poland, Russia, Hungary, and England, in addition to national-level events around the U.S. beginning this fall.

The fencing phenom also received an Academic All-American Recognition Award, presented annually at the Summer National Championships. This USA Fencing program acknowledges high school-age competitive fencers who posted a cumulative GPA of at least 3.7 for the academic year. He competes for the Fencing Academy of Westchester in Hawthorne, and has been coached by Archil Lortkipanidze since he was 9.

Off-camera July has been a big month for Fox TV investigative journalist Arnie Diaz. The 62-year-old Manursing Island Club team member captured the Westchester Sound Shore League B Singles title, breezing through a much younger draw with relative ease. “He gives hope to all AARP members,” said team captain Nick Jovanovich.

Manursing Men’s B Champion Arnold Diaz with runner-up Mark Keegan

He’s on a tear, after having had double knee replacement surgery last summer. The question is: can he match his Emmy Award number, which at last count was approaching 40.

Rye’s select team of 11-year-olds opened the District 20 Little League playoffs July 8 by thumping a strong Eastchester team 9-5 at Disbrow Field.

Rye started slowly, with four batters going down swinging in the first two innings. But the floodgates opened in the third, when Rye’s No. 8 and 9 hitters, Owen Hull and Max Kenny, stroked a pair of singles through the middle. Everyone was safe when Eastchester’s third sacker muffed Matt Bruno’s grounder, and Dusty Mion’s hard single to center plated all three runners, aided by some sloppy Eastchester defense. Billy Chabot’s groundout to short scored Rye’s fourth run of the frame.

Unfortunately, pitcher Max Kenny’s own defense was porous early on, and Eastchester was ahead 5-4 when Chabot settled things with a towering homer to right-center in the fifth. Mion’s second hit of the day, a double, drove in Bruno for Rye’s ninth run in the sixth inning, after which Mion took the mound and closed out the game.

The following Monday, Rye was back at Disbrow to take on fellow first-round winners Elmsford, trouncing them, 8-2. The victory sets up a battle of the unbeatens July 15 at Eastchester’s O’Rourke Field against Harrison, which defeated White Plains, 8-4. The winner advances to the championship round, where they’ll need one victory in two games (if necessary) to win the District 20 title.

Rye’s All-Star 9- and 10-year-old baseball team did it the hard way. After being walloped 11-1 by Harrison in their first game of the District 20 playoffs, manager Matt Anderson’s charges came roaring back to beat both Thornwood’s Sherman Park and Kensico in dramatic one-run contests, each a last-inning, walk-off affair.

The team, ironically designated as the visitors at Disbrow Field by the tournament schedule, took on Ardsley July 1. Lacking the services of starter Yoshihide Sato, they still came out swinging. After falling behind by a run in the first, Will Tonkel doubled to the fence in right-center, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a towering fly to left by Grant Meyerson.

Prior to the first pitch of Rye’s Major League Championship game last month, Micheline DiNardo was honored with the 4th annual Ryan Adamson Sportsmanship Award. The trophy is named for the Rye Little League and Babe Ruth player who passed away four years ago at the age of 15.

“I was honored to be presented with such a meaningful award and it was a really special way to end my Little League career,” said Micheline, who plays for the Rays under coach Paul Turcotte.

The 2nd annual Rye Lacrosse Alumni Game, held June 25 at Nugent Stadium, was just as thrilling as the first go-round. For the second time in as many years, the odd-year graduates – wearing white this time – defeated the even-year red team 9-8 in overtime. Briggs Barton scored the game-winner.

The cast of the 2011 Rye Lacrosse Alumni Game

Many of Barton’s class of 2011 teammates played, including Max Bonsall, Michael Collins, Matt McReddie, Brian Pickup, and Gwynne Spencer. Several current college laxers – such as Donald Keough (Notre Dame), Kevin Gordon (Colgate), Mike Linehan (Marist), Neil Davis (Fairfield), Cole McCormack (Cornell), and Robert Santangelo (Union) – joined the fray as well. The young guns weren’t the only graduates to suit up, however, as Andy Ball, Ken Giaquinto, Adam McReddie, John Wood, and Eric Moy all hit the field. Moy, who played goalie for the red team, even donated the pinnies from Fong’s, his family’s dry cleaning store on Elm Place.

Four sets of brothers – the McReddies, Davis’s, Kochs, and Buttricks – played in the game.

“It was a lot of fun, and all 30-plus players took the game seriously,” said George McReddie, who is stepping down as Rye Lacrosse Association President, but will organize the contest going forward. “They all love the game and take the opportunity to play it any time they have the chance. The older guys said it was a lot faster than they remembered!”

Eric Moy, class of 1986, manned goal for the red team

After the game, which helped raise money for the Association, the competitors enjoyed a barbeque courtesy the Post Road Market.